Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
Thanks for joining our bible discussion tonight as we continue exploring the topic of life under the New Covenant. I thought we should start tonight by remembering where we've been so far in this discussion so we don't lose sight of what we're trying to accomplish. The main point to be considered is that MOST Christians aren't experiencing the fullness of the New Covenant that God has made available. And, one of the main reasons for that is that manmade traditions are often obscuring what the Word actually says about particular aspects of intended life under our everlasting covenant with God. Here paraphrased from Mark 7:8-13 is what the Bible says about our religious traditions:
"We nullify the Word of God with manmade religious traditions that we hand down and around to each other from generation to generation."
Sometimes these traditions become so strong, so entrenched in our belief structure that we wind up actually resisting the Word of God when we see that it's contradicting what our traditions have been telling us for perhaps decades. With that in mind, following are some of the main conclusions we've reached so far in the previous six studies which you can re-access by clicking on the Archives link at the top left side of this newsletter:
* Christian believers are NOT supposed to live under the Law of Moses. In fact, there are MANY scriptures that instruct us to separate ourselves from the Law but by tradition we keep trying to go back there and connect to it. We tend toward living under the Law when we try to connect our personal conduct to the availability of God's favor.
* The Word does NOT say anywhere that we should live by the moral part of the Law of Moses and disregard only the ceremonial part. NO PLACE DOES IT SAY THAT! WHAT IT DOES SAY IS FOR BELIEVERS TO SEPARATE FROM ALL OF IT.
* According to what the Word actually says the main purpose of the Law of Moses is to show non-believers that they need Jesus. We can also derive from Scripture that another purpose is to provide moral direction to authorities and governments. But it isn't for Believers. By design no one can live successfully under the Law of Moses.
* We're instructed to separate ourselves from the Law of Moses because there's a new LAW to live by under the New Covenant. It is called The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and it's based on using our faith to connect to God's undeserved favor (grace) that He has released for the purpose of empowering believers. It is impossible to simultaneously live under both these laws just as it is impossible to live simultaneously in the flesh and in the Spirit.
* The work of redemption that Jesus performed at Calvary was a completed work and in the course of accomplishing that, He has ALREADY paid for all the sins of all people for all time. In sum, all the sins of mankind are ALREADY forgiven. If you now ever ask God to FORGIVE you for one of your sins, His answer could rightfully be: "I've already forgiven you because Jesus paid for it." It is normal to feel remorse for your sin, or to apologize for it, or to ask the Holy Spirit for help in overcoming it. And you should acknowledge (confess) TO YOURSELF that what you did was in fact a sin and that you want to turn and go in the opposite direction from it (repent). But, if you specifically ask Him to FORGIVE you, He's ALREADY done that and to God it was a big deal that He did it. He wants you now to accept your forgiveness as an absolute so that the subject of sin can be fully removed from your current mutual relationship.
Before moving on to this week's point, I want to make clear that all the scripture references for the above conclusions are included in those previous six articles. I've not shown them again here in order to save space for tonight's article, but I encourage you if you're not sure how I got to these conclusions to go back and review those previous articles. Those who have ears to hear and aren't sure how we got to this point will want to go back and make a list of all the scriptures so they can succeed in setting aside contradictory traditions once and for all.
Supernatural Forgetfulness
Now, it's really important to God that in this NEW relationship believers are able to receive and enjoy the fullness of His love. We have to learn to do that by seeing to it that ALL of the causes of what previously blocked it have been removed. Stated another way, God can't (and won't) tolerate sin and on our own we're incapable of not sinning. That's what formerly blocked the fulfillment of the relationship that God has always wanted. So, He arranged for Jesus to pay for ALL our sins for ALL time so that from His perspective sin is no longer a factor. And, by supernatural means He has chosen to NOT remember that any of us have ever sinned (Hebrews 8:12, 10:17). He sees us now as sin-free. Therefore, if we ask Him to forgive us for a particular sin of the moment, His scripture-based answer could very well be: "What sin?"
But keep in mind that there are two parties to this relationship. God has chosen to not remember our sin because it used to make Him angry and worked against how He wants to express His love. But we believers still remember all our sins and it causes us to feel guilty and unworthy of the love and grace that God has for us. Those things work against our ability to express our love to Him which is a main reason why we have to have our minds renewed (Romans 12:1-2). Originally we had to be subjected to the Law of Moses in order to find out what sin is, then we had to come to the realization that we needed Jesus and now we have to renew our minds and learn to receive and return God's love. That's why, my friend, that the Bible says we're not to be "conscious" of our sins (Hebrews 10:2).
What does that mean? It does NOT mean that when you sin you ignore it or that you stop working with the Holy Spirit to overcome it. It simply means that you don't allow your sin to detract from or interfere with your relationship with the Father. Certainly it bothers you that you commit the sin but you keep in mind that Jesus already paid for it and that God is not counting it against you or holding you accountable for it (2 Corinthians 5:19). And, you keep in mind that you don't have to do anything to make up for your sin and that He won't withhold His favor from you for what you've done. His forgiveness has ALREADY happened and so you can run TO Him instead of running FROM Him when you sin. You go TO Him without guilt because you ALREADY are righteous in every respect that matters to God.
Conclusions
Do we go out and sin anyway once we find out that God has ALREADY forgotten about it? May it never be (Romans 6:15)! The truth is that the contrary happens. When the guilt and sin consciousness are out of the way, we'll be free to love God to our fullest, and as that matures we'll be LESS inclined to sin than we were before. I know this flies in the face of all our tradition but I'm trying hard to portray here just the Word as it's written without my interpretation or manipulation. Read the scriptures yourself so that you know FOR yourself what seems correct according to your own understanding of the Word.
When you do that you will see that Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 are explaining that the New Covenant was prophesied to come in the future so that believers could live under an arrangement where God would no longer be holding sins against us. You can see those prophesies in Isaiah 43:25 and Jeremiah 31:33 and it is the New Testament in your Bible confirming that those prophesies were fulfilled by the work of Christ at Calvary.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on November 1. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM central time. Agree with us for God to answer your petitions.
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